


tease my luck next time

by justbeingmyowngenie



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Domestic, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Domestic Fluff, F/F, Fluff, Hair Braiding, Modern Era, girlfriends in love, no beta read we gon die like men, ty lee's guide on dealing with azula's competitiveness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:28:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26059525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justbeingmyowngenie/pseuds/justbeingmyowngenie
Summary: “Zuzu!”Azula glares at her. “Do. not. call. me. that.”
Relationships: Azula/Ty Lee (Avatar)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 112





	tease my luck next time

**Author's Note:**

> hiiii~ all this time, i have been writing for bsd fandom (mostly) but after rewatching a childhood treasure, avatar the last airbender, i stumbled upon this new ship (among the new ships i have for the series) and there isn't anything that happened for them post-victory canon so to escape from that angst, why not write a domestic fluff in a totally different universe 
> 
> anyway, this is the first f/f ship i have written for. i love them so much, i want them to be happy 
> 
> that's all and i hope you guys will enjoooy~

Her sinews along her plump arms move like a beautiful flowing river as she combs through the strands of her long brown hair. The mirror fully frames half of Ty’s figure, wrapped in a towel under her arms. It’s her morning routine; combing her lukewarm hair fresh from the warmth of the blower and checking on the state of her physical body to see if she needs to do some changes for a few new routines in her ballet class. 

Behind her, Azula passes by the door of her room, her pitch black hair a tangled mop on top of her crumpled PJs get-up. People would like to think Azula is the perfect type who’d get up early, but within months of being away from their estate in the countryside, she and Mai learned two things: Azula hates mornings and she doesn’t have the faintest idea of waking up by herself. 

And the idea of waking up by herself just made her crankier every morning. 

Not wanting to take the grumpy grunt of Azula at seven o’clock in the high morning, Ty focuses back on her hair, her hands combing through her strands and her hair brush participating in a dance of never-meeting tango. She totally dismisses Azula who is leaning against the door of her room, staring at her - of course, in a studious-kind of way. 

(Either way it was, she’s used to being stared at by Azula, often microscopically since they were young.)

“Zula~ You can come in, you know, and look at me  _ closer _ ,” Ty beckons teasingly. “There’s no fun in staring at me from afar like that.” Her lips curl into a smile. 

Azula looks away, but her blush doesn’t go amissed from Ty. She might have mastered the Art of Confidence Under Pressure but not even someone as sure-footed as Azula cannot hide the trembles of what swayed her. “That’s not what I’m staring about.” 

When Ty turns around, she braces her hands against the edge of her vanity table. Azula’s  _ tsundere- _ ness goads her smile into something wider and more suggestive. “And what is it, then?” 

Azula rolls her eyes and chuckles at her girlfriend’s attempts of breaking her defenses. But the moment of silence that stretches betray  _ some  _ insecurities, until she’s confident enough to speak. “Can you let me do your hair?” 

Ty tilts her head. “ _ Oh?  _ You mean, braid it?” 

“Yeah, the usual thing you do with your hair.” Azula gestures a hand-curl next to her head. 

Ty looks over to her skeptically. “Do you even know how to braid?” 

Azula probably masters the art of ponytails and buns, but definitely not braids. She’d never seen her wear one or, more so, attempted to braid her hair or someone else’s hair. Ty never really asked her why or offered to teach her. When it comes to Azula, she just assumed she knows or she doesn’t like it enough to learn it. 

Out of all surprises she’d have today, Azula finally comes up about it with her. 

But as all things Azula, who takes every doubt as a challenge, she crosses her arms and smirks at her. “Oh, wouldn’t you want to know?” She twirls her hair around her fingers. “I might have had Youtube lessons…before.”

Chuckling, Ty gives in. “Okay~ Come here, then.” She grabs a chair nearby and places it in front of the mirror. While Azula walks over to her, she takes her time to sit and flip her long hair out so it would dangle along the backrest of the chair. 

When Azula picks up a handful of hair, she stares at it with the dread of a thousand bad lucks, a gulp escaping her throat. She has always known Ty’s hair is unbelievably long but the idea of having to braid is a challenge akin to untangling vines along the towering walls of their estate back in the countryside. Which is exactly why she never offered to help the servants untangle them, unlike her dumb brother who always insisted only for him to get more complexedly tangled than ever. 

And for starters, she’s a  _ total starter  _ at braiding. 

“Good luck, Azula~” Ty chants out. Azula clucks her tongue, mentally. 

* * *

Intertwining three crumples of strands with  _ only two hands _ seem to require a superpower Azula doesn’t have - and it isn’t fair. She would want to throw a tantrum about it but absolutely not in front of Ty Lee. She should have it, she should have any superpower required for any single thing to do in the world, especially something as simple as inter-lacing Group A safely under Group B without some hair strands entangling with Group C. How did Ty Lee make it look so simple? 

Ty knows there’s something going on, if Azula pulling at her hair  _ too tightly  _ isn’t proof enough. She lets out a chuckle as she prods on, “Is it too hard, Zula~?” 

If Zuko asks her that, Azula would have shaved a patch of his hair and humiliated him in front of his crushes. But it’s Ty Lee, and it’s a no-no with her - unless she can risk getting grounded from her room or her circle of aura in a week. 

(The pact was altogether insensible, but Ty insisted, “I’ll help you get over your fears by watching over them.” With that matching eye-for-an-eye gesture. Whether it’s because she hates the fact of being vulnerable to someone or because no one asked her to be vulnerable with someone – it’s precisely both.) 

“Shut up, Lee,” Azula snarls competitively. “I’m almost done.”

“That thing only takes me two minutes, tops.”

Azula bites her lip, holding back from reasoning the common reply of “I’m still a beginner” most pathetic people use. She knows that even if she is a beginner at something, it wouldn’t take so long as fifteen minutes – that’s how the braiding took her and she isn’t even halfway through Ty’s godforsaken long hair.

Ty Lee doesn’t mind the threatening clutch of her hair on her scalp as they try to resist Azula’s death-threat of a pull as much as she cares about how Azula is at her wits’ end already and she has wasted a huge chunk of her day’s energy on Ty’s hair alone. And so, she takes whatever chances she gets to pull Azula out of her mania.

Ty turns around on her seat and looks up at Azula. “You know, I’ll let you have a little break. Why don’t you let me braid yours?” She musters her signature bright, sparkling eyes at her.

Azula squints at her, then at the braid, weighing the options and risks of having been caught at giving up.

“Okay! Just a break,” She warns.

Ty laughs. “Don’t sweat it too much, Azula.” She stands up and guides Azula to her former seat. When she lays her hands on Azula’s shoulders, her fingertips feel the tension writhing inside her body that she squeezes it gently out of her, coaxing them out through the rolls of her hands around Azula’s shoulder blades.

Azula looks suspiciously at her through the mirror. “Braid my hair, Ty Lee, not massage me.”

“But~” She chants out, not obeying Azula. “You need to be relaxed when I braid your hair, so it’ll be easier.” No, body tension and hair-braiding  _ do not  _ have any correlation.

Ty snuggles her cheek against Azula’s, as they both look at each other at the mirror. “Let me take care of you, okay?”

Azula rolls her eyes. “Fine.” Ty sees the edge of her lips pull up into what could be a ghost of a smile – and she refuses to believe it’s the trick of the mirror.

And Ty Lee goes down to work, silently. Her fingers are gentle and hypnotizing through Azula’s hair and she swears she sees her eyelids drop down a bit. Her fingers are velvet against her satin, and it’s the perfect combination for a sleeping spell. And she’s happy. Ty Lee is happy that she can manage to drain Azula of her stress and frustration with just a touch of her hand, as simple as the skills she allows herself to have.

But it’s a shame Azula will refuse to understand how it is beneficial for both of them not to be good at everything. Ty Lee hates studying so she always walks up to Azula for it, and Azula doesn’t know the art of braiding and Ty Lee hopes Azula will just let her do it for her. Ty Lee hopes Azula will let her do what she thinks can relax her, because that’s the least she can do. 

And in it, Ty Lee believes she can do her best.

In the midst of the silence that was filled by the traffic hum below the condominium complex, Azula hums – not for the sake of music, but for attention. “Don’t you think you’re taking too long?”

“Come on, Azula! Just be patient~ I’m almost done~”

“You’re not forgetting about your unfinished braid, aren’t you?”

“Of course, not!” She giggles.

“Ty Lee.”

“Promise, I’ll let you! Just a little more hair to go~”

She finishes Azula’s braid with a red ribbon inside her drawer. Usually she’d look at her handiwork but she looks at Azula through the mirror and bets mentally that if she wears braids all the time, lots of boys would deem her approachable.

Not that Azula wants that, or either Ty Lee. Neither of them wants that.

Azula quickly stands up and turns around. With the braid pulling his hair back and accenting her whole oval face, her smirk at Ty becomes only more radiant. “Your turn~” She conspiratorially chants out.

Ty takes a step back. “About that—” She looks about her to search for an idea to escape. “Hey, don’t you think I’ve been too under-dressed for so long? It’s getting colder now, Zula~”

Her towel had soaked up all the water from her shower and she’s shivering at the sharp cold that bites against her skin. 

“Oh, come on, Ty Lee! You just don’t want me to braid your hair.” Azula crosses her arms. Ty doesn’t miss the few seconds of her sulking, and then she watches her frown drops. “It’s bad, isn’t it?”

“No, of course not—”

“Tell me the truth.”

“Well…” Ty is picking on her fingers behind her. “You definitely need…” – She doesn’t know if she’s wording it right. – “A little more practice…I guess. Please, don’t be angry!” She pulls her palms up in defense.

Azula is silent for a few minutes, her face unreadable. Ty Lee waits in agony until she hears her chuckle.

“Azula?” Ty is concerned if the frustration got the better of her girlfriend.

“It’s so silly of me to fuss so much about braids.” She laughs it off. “You’re right, I do need a little more practice, but can you let me practice on your hair? _ Please _ ?”

Ty Lee smiles. “Only if you let me get dressed first.”

Azula flashes her devious smirk. “We’re the only ones here—”

“Azula! You don’t want me to get a cold, do you?”

“If that will get you bedridden for days that I can practice on your hair longer, I definitely would want that.”

“Zuzu!”

Azula glares at her. “Do. not. call. me. that.” 

“I will if you won’t let me get dressed.”

Ty Lee twirls her hair about her fingers. “You’re technically Zuzu as well because A-ZU-la—”

Grumbling, Azula pushes her to the walk-in closet next to them. “Just get dressed.”

Ty holds off at the doorway, not stepping inside until she leaves Azula with a kiss on her cheeks and a shivering whisper against her ears, saying, “I will let you do everything you want with my hair after this.”

As much as Azula is domineering, Ty Lee is every bit of a tease. 

**Author's Note:**

> azula's perfectionism hits so close to home *crying noises* 
> 
> comments and kudos are very much appreciated! thank you so much for taking your time reading this really short fluff. i hope it was worth your time and effort spent


End file.
